Floating blossom

Some pictures have a certain surreal touch, almost as if they are taken from a fairy tale. The dancing butterflies in Saigon are one example, another one is this picture of a blossom apparently floating above its branch that I took in a small muslim community deep inside the Mekong delta.

Living in the Mekong delta

I am currently working my way through almost 600 pictures from the Mekong delta. The Mekong delta covers a gigantic region and most of the large population (around 17 million people) live at the poverty level. People live mostly in small shacks which are built directly by the many sidearms and channels that form the delta. We travelled the delta on a boat from where you could watch the people living their daily lives - fishing, washing their hair or their kids, eating, sleeping ... In some cases we could literally see into their homes.

Acropolis from Lycabetus

We just came back from Athens, where - once again - we went to the thop of Lycabetus. This is a hill in the center of Athens, north of the Acropolis, which offers in my opinion the most impressive view of Athens. Since I haven't even downloaded the new pictures from my camera here an older view across the city.

To Panyghri

A short time-out from the Vietnam pictures ... Some time ago I submitted a picture to the Lumix award competition, which had the topic 'Visualise music'. Unfortunately, I didn't win anything :( Nevertheless, here is the picture I had submitted. It was taken in the beautiful and bankrupt country of Greece, during a Panyghri - a big religious celebration followed by a night of eating, drinking and dancing - in Ikaria, where we spent our holidays in 2008.

Streets of Hoi An

Three new galleries are up on colors · and · contrasts, covering the central part of both our journey and of Vietnam: Hue, Hoi An and Ho Chi Minh City.

Halong bay

I finally managed to finish and upload the galleries for our trips to the Sapa mountains and the Halong bay. Take a look, I hope you like the new pictures!

Pas de deux in the streets of Saigon

We were having a light lunch in a small café in one of the busy streets of Ho-Chi-Minh-City, formerly called Saigon, when I spotted two butterflies dancing with each other in the middle of the intersection in front of us. Passing cars could only temporarily separate them, as they always found each other again to continue their elegant dance in the middle of the crowded traffig. While I am not completely happy with the picture, it still captures a moment of unexpected beauty in an apparently dull location.